10: If Only

"It's so small!"

"Size isn't important. Technique is all that matters."

"Still, it's smaller than I thought it would be. It's also thinner than I expected."

"Why do you look so disappointed?!"

"I'm not disappointed. Well... Size doesn't matter... But still... It's too small."

Pop!

Chelsea twirled the short, thin needle between her fingers before flicking her wrist. The needle shot from her hand and embedded itself into the wooden plank on the wall.

"See? It's all about technique."

"This is harder than it looks. A thin, small needle like this could kill a person," Natsuo said with a tired sigh as he held an identical needle in his hand before throwing it at the wall. The way Chelsea threw her needle made it look as though it were effortlessly easy.

"Don't put too much pressure on yourself. You're actually surprisingly talented at this. I was slightly worse than you when I first started," Chelsea said with a laugh as she ruffled his hair. She then turned around, stretched her shoulders, and said, "That's it for today. This isn't a suitable place for training. We can try something else outdoors."

"Alright," Natsuo could only agree. He walked over to the wall, pulled the needles embedded in the wooden plank free, returned to his original spot, and began throwing them again.

Although there was probably a shop in the Chat Group that sold skills and superpowers,

Natsuo knew the benefits of training were not limited to acquiring the skill itself. It also built the mentality needed to use it properly, along with the practical experience required to apply it effectively.

Hard work is an essential part of a person's life if they want to go far.

Chelsea lazily lay down on the sofa, pulled a lollipop out of nowhere, and popped it into her mouth while watching Natsuo with a smile.

Ring!

The intercom beside her rang. When she answered it, one of the staff informed her that two people were looking for them. She told the staff to bring them up. After putting the intercom down, she turned to Natsuo and said, "Hilda-san and Kana-san are here."

"They're here?" Natsuo replied without looking back.

When they booked the suite, they had texted Kana and Hilda the location and told them to come over once they had finished their work.

"Whoa, it's big!"

After the staff led them to the suite and left, Kana looked around in amazement. She surveyed the luxurious room as though she had never seen anything like it before. Then, when she spotted Natsuo throwing needles, she asked curiously, "What are you doing?"

"Training," Natsuo replied calmly.

"Training? You?" Kana gave him a long look and chuckled, but when she saw the serious expression on his face, she dropped the idea of teasing him.

Hilda glanced at Natsuo before sitting down, crossing her legs as she relaxed. She had changed out of the luxurious red gown she wore earlier. This time, she was dressed in streetwear consisting of a crop top, a jacket, and baggy pants. She took the hat off her head and casually tossed it onto the sofa.

"We ran into two of them."

"Only two?" Chelsea replied.

Since Hilda and Kana had gone to crowded places like Shinjuku but had only run into two parasites, it seemed that she and Natsuo had been rather lucky, or unlucky, depending on how you looked at it, to run into a parasite.

"You guys were fast. How did you manage to get everything done so quickly?" Kana kept glancing around as she walked over to the fridge and grabbed a cold soda. She opened it and took a sip.

She was very curious about how Chelsea and Natsuo had managed to sell the gold and get everything settled in just a couple of hours.

"We ran into a parasite with his lunch," Chelsea replied casually.

"What did you do?" Kana's movements came to a halt, and her grip on the can subconsciously tightened.

"Chelsea killed him and took the identity of his prey," Natsuo replied as he walked over and sat down beside Hilda.

"...Oh," Kana let out a soft sound and lowered her head. Hearing that two people had actually died, and seeing how casually the others were taking it, made her finally realize that this shit was real.

Among the four of them, she was the only one who was still taking everything lightly. Even now, part of her still felt as though everything happening around them wasn't truly real, but was instead nothing more than a game.

"By the way, Hilda, since you're from a different world, can you sense mana here?" Natsuo asked, looking really concerned. If there was no mana in this world, then Hilda would be reduced to nothing more than a normal person, just like the rest of them.

"Mana in this world is thin. It's much thinner than it is back in my world," Hilda said after pondering his question for a short while.

The moment she arrived, she sensed that the mana in this world was so thin that it could not even compare to one tenth of the mana in her original world.

"That's a relief." Natsuo let out a sigh of relief after hearing her answer. Even if the mana was thin, the important thing was that mana still existed. Even if she had to spend much more time replenishing her mana after using it all up, it didn't matter.

Even back in her world, where mana was much denser, when magicians ran out of mana, they usually became useless. Battles were incredibly fast paced, and there was no way their opponents or enemies would politely wait for them to recover their mana.

So essentially, her combat power had not diminished much. It only added more inconvenience, but that was something they could deal with.

The four of them then discussed what they should do tomorrow. The quest required them to kill 100 parasites. Chelsea had already killed one, leaving 99 remaining. They also had to prevent the massacre at West High School, which should be much easier than hunting down 99 parasites.

The most problematic issue was dealing with Gatou. They had to find him before he became too strong and kill him.

They laid out their plans for tomorrow. Kana called her family and told them that she would be spending the night with her female friends. She took a picture with Chelsea and Hilda, then told them that Hilda was Chelsea's mother.

"Are you calling me old?!" Hilda became furious and smacked Kana on the head. She was barely in her early thirties; how dare this brat lie and say that she was Chelsea's mother?!

Chelsea was clearly in her twenties! She was only a few years younger than her!

"Ouch!" Kana held her head with tears forming in her eyes as she glanced pitifully at Hilda. This milf's punch is so painful!

"If only Ghislaine were here," Hilda suddenly let out a heavy sigh and muttered.

If she had Ghislaine with her right now, she wouldn't have to worry about anything. She would have finished everything on her own already. She was a Sword King who could blitz through the entire quest by herself. That woman was a one woman army.

Even if the quest had been multiple times harder, Ghislaine would have certainly accomplished it on her own.

Too bad, there was no use in thinking about 'if'. 'If' was such a cursed word that even scientists and sages had spent countless years trying to find a solution for it, but in the end, they could only give up and lament, 'If only there were no 'ifs'.'

Everyone went to sleep after their discussion. The suite had two rooms, a living room and a bedroom with a king size bed. Natsuo had to sleep in the living room, while the three women shared the bedroom together.

'Tsk!' Natsuo clicked his tongue inwardly as he watched them close the door to the room. It was too bad he didn't get the chance to share the same bed with them.

Feeling disappointed, he eventually lay down on the sofa, pulled the blanket over himself, and turned off the light. Soon after, he drifted off to sleep.

...

After everyone woke up, they split up to do what they had to do. Kana went to school, and Natsuo spent the morning training his needle throwing skills. Chelsea went out early in the morning, saying she wanted to get everything done as quickly as possible.

Natsuo wasn't entirely sure what she meant by that, but she was a top class assassin. Perhaps she had something in mind.

On the other hand, Hilda stayed in the living room watching TV for the first time. She was watching Mushoku Tensei on a 97 inch OLED TV while eating snacks, acting as though she were on vacation.

She was completely engrossed in the anime. Whenever she saw Rudeus acting like a creep in his child's body, she would curse at him for being despicable. The guy had the soul of a middle aged man, but he was lusting after girls like Sylphiette and Eris!

Natsuo didn't try to disturb her, but to be honest, she kept distracting him the whole time. She was only wearing dolphin shorts and a sleeveless top that exposed a little too much skin for a teenager like him still going through puberty. Her large funbags were squeezed tightly together, and he could have sworn he saw part of her areola and nipples every time she moved violently while cursing at Rudeus.

In the end, because he couldn't take it anymore, he texted Kana and decided to meet up with her so they could look for parasites together and maybe establish contact with Shinichi Izumi. After all, the main character could sense parasites far better than Kana, and he was also quite powerful.

Well, Migi was the one who could actually do that. Though it would be problematic if Migi decided to attack them immediately once it realized its identity had been exposed.

"Hey, tell me, how did it feel having sex with your sister?" Swinging her school bag back and forth with one hand, Kana looked at Natsuo with a wide grin and asked.

"Why? Are you that curious?" Natsuo turned to the side, met her gaze directly, and replied in a flat tone, "If you're really curious, I can tell you everything in fine detail. The anime and manga didn't show that part clearly, right?"

"Do you want to know how it felt to penetrate my stepsister's virgin pussy? How my dick stretched her pussy walls? Or maybe how it feels to knead and suck on her soft breasts?" As he spoke, he leaned closer and closer, watching Kana's panicked and increasingly red face. 

Did this girl really think he would get embarrassed and try to clarify himself?

He had already tried a couple of times, but this girl was only trying to make fun of him and tease him. She thought he was ashamed of sleeping with Rui.

Bitch please! Who the hell would be ashamed of fucking a cute girl?